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INDIAN  RIGHTS 
ASSOCIATION 

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REMOV/OH 
.......^^^       SOUTHERN  UTES 

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A    pUt^THH^    l^EPOt^T 


TO  THE 


INDIAN  Rights  association 


ON  THE 


Proposed  Removal  of  the 
Southern  Utes. 


-*-V<r*" 


FRANCIS  FISHER  KANE, 
FRANK  M.  RITER, 
January  2oth,  1892.  ,  Commiuee. 


Persons  desiring  to  become  membc  .  of  the  Association 
should  present  their  names  and  addret.^.es  fo  the  Corres- 
ponding Secretary,  who  will  submit  them  to  the  Executive 
Committee  for  election.  An  annual  fee  of  two  dollars  is 
required  of  members,  in  return  for  which  they  are  entitled 
to  all  publications  of  the  society. 

HERBERT  WELSH, 

Corresponding  Secretary  I.  R,  A.y 

1305  Arch  Street,  Philadelphia. 


Prbss  of  Wm.  F.  Fell  &  Co., 
1220-24  Sansom  St., 

PHILADELPHIA. 


#1»: 


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OF 

PROPOSED  RESERVATION, 

SHOWING  ROUTE  TAKEN  BY  COMMITTEE. 


/ 


DRAWN   BY 

HENRY  J.  TAYLOR,   PHILADELPHIA. 


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RESERVATION 


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The  Removal  of  the  Southern  Utes. 


A  new  attempt  is  to  be  made  to  remove  the  Southern  Utes 
from  Colorado,  and  to  this  end  Senator  Wolcott  has  introduced 
Bill  No.  362.  It  is  now  in  the  hands  of  the  Senate  Committee 
on  Indian  Affairs.  The  undersigned,  as  a  committee  of  the 
Indian  Rights  Association,  last  August  visited  the  present  reser- 
vation of  these  Indians  and  also  the  district  to  which  it  is  pro- 
posed to  remove  them,  and  would  now  respectfully  report  as 
follows : — 

The  Southern  Utes,  who  are  really  composed  of  three  small 
bands,  the  Weeminuches,  Moaches,  and  Capotes,  at  present 
occupy  a  long,  narrow  rectangle  in  the  southwestern  part  of 
Colorado,  extending  fifteen  miles  north  and  south  and  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  miles  east  and  west,  having  the  New  Mexico  line 
for  its  southern  boundary  and  the  Utah  line  for  its  western. 


THEIR  PRESENT  CONDITION. 
The  Southern  Utes  are  by  no  means  civilized.  Most  of  them 
still  cling  to  the  blanket,  though  all  wear  some  article  or  other 
of  the  white  man's  dress.  Few  of  them  speak  English  with  any 
fluency.  They  have  little  education  and  less  religion.  With 
the  exception  of  two  or  three  Indians  who  have  been  educated 
at  Roman  Catholic  mission  schools,  the  members  of  the  three 
tribes  know  absolutely  nothing  of  Christianity.  The  whites  at 
the  agency  say  that  there  is  little  drinking  among  them,  tl:e 
Doctor  himself  having  seen  but  two  or  three  drunken  Indians  ki 
as  many  years,  yet  most  of  them  have  a  contempt  for  work — a 
contempt  difficult  to  overcome — and  while  too  proud  to  steal, 

I 


are  inordinately  fond  of  gambling.  It  may  be  said,  however, 
that  they  are  fairly  honest  and  moral  when  their  total  lack  of  edu- 
cation and  religion  is  considered.  They  are  gradually  abandon- 
ing their  superstitions,  and  many  of  them  in  time  of  sickness  now 
place  an  absolute  reliance  on  the  agency  physician,  who  has 
won  their  confidence  to  a  remarkable  extent. 

The  only  school  that  has  ever  existed  on  the  reservation,  not- 
withstanding tlie  express  promises  of  the  Government  in  the 
agreements  of  1 868  and  1880,  has  been  one  in  which  not  more 
than  thirteen  children  were  at  any  time  successfully  educated. 
Finally,  the  walls  of  the  dormitories  became  so  rotten  that,  in 
order  to  avert  the  roof  falling  in  and  a  catastrophe  ensuing, 
which  would  have  exerted  a  most  disastrous  effect  on  the  Indian 
mind,  the  Agent,  with  the  approval  of  the  Honorable  Commis- 
sioner, dismissed  the  pupils  and  had  the  building  torn  down. 


FEW   TROUBLES   WITH    THEIR    NEIGHBORS. 

What  troubles  we  heard  of  as  having  occurred  between  them- 
selves and  their  white  neighbors  along  the  borders  of  their  reser- 
vation could  be  counted  off  on  one's  fingers,  and  were,  in  fact, 
so  few  that  they  need  hardly  be  considered.  What  troubles 
do  arise,  occur  almost  always  when  the  Indians  are  far  away 
from  their  reservation.  The  Colorado  newspapers  give  the 
impression  that  a  guerrilla  warfare  is  kept  up  along  the  northern 
and  southern  boundaries  of  the  reserve.  This  is  not  so.  The 
Indians  have  for  years  allowed  the  neighboring  cattlemen  to 
"round  up"  northward  and  southward  across  the  reservation, 
till  in  places  the  grass  had  been  eaten  bare.  County  roads  have 
been  built,  and  the  Denver  and  Rio  Grande  made  its  surveys 
and  laid  its  miles  of  track  across  the  reservation  without  any 
arrangement  being  first  made  with  the  Indians,  and  yet  without 
any  serious  trouble  with  them  in  consequence  of  this  neglect. 
The  H.  D.  Cattle  Company  has  had  a  ranch  in  the  valley  of  the 
Pinos,  just  north  of  the  reservation,  and  was  in  September  about 
to  remove  its  stock  out  of  the  country.  Its  manager  said  that 
the  step  was  taken  by  his  company  not  because  of  any  trouble 
with  the  Indians,  but  because  the  climate  had  been  found  too 
severe  for  cattle  in  the  winter  time. 


HARDLY    ANY    CATTLE    OWNED    BY    THEM. 

The  Indians  have  practically  no  cattle.  The  Government 
employes  seemed  to  know  of  only  one  Indian  who  owned  any. 
This  was  a  Weeminuche  named  Washington,  who  had,  perhaps, 
three  or  four  hundred  head,  but  who  remained  most  of  the  time 
in' Utah,  never  coming  to  the  agency.  We  have  reason  to 
believe  that  we  subsequently  met  this  mythical  cattleman,  and 
found  that  his  white  friends  in  Utah  knew  nothing  of  his  cattle, 
and  entirely  disbelieved  the  piece  of  statistics  that,  had  been 
given  us. 

SHEEP   AND    GOATS. 

In  1886  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Aifairs  put  the  sheep 
and  goats  belonging  to  the  Southern  Utes  at  about  four  thou- 
sand, but  they  should  probably  at  present  be  placed  at  a  lower 
figure. 

HORSES — HUNTING   IN   THE   MOUNTAINS. 

The  Indians  have  plenty  of  ponies,  but  keep  them  almost 
entirely  for  sport  and  pleasure,  never  selling  the  good  ones,  and 
only  parting  with  the  poor  ones  when  sadly  in  need  of  money. 
Their  ponies  are,  consequently,  a  curse  to  them  rather  than  a 
blessing,  enabling  them  to  continue  their  wild,  wandering  life, 
which  must  sooner  or  later  be  abandoned,  and  while  it  lasts  is 
productive  only  of  moral  degradation  and  trouble  with  the 
whites.  As  the  game  has  gradually  diminished,  their  hunting 
has  become  less  and  less.  We  saw  no  skins,  deer  horns,  or 
similar  trophies  at  the  agency,  and  we  are  led  to  believe  that 
they  actually  do  almost  as  much  berrying  as  hunting  when  away 
on  their  excursions  in  the  mountains. 


FARMING. 

In  agriculture  they  have  done  very  little.  Among  the  two 
hundred  and  seventy-three  braves  only  some  thirty-two  have 
taken  to  farming,  the  total  number  of  acres  under  cultivation 
being  something  less  than  six  hundred.  Fully  half  of  the 
thirty-two  farms  are  rented  on  shares  to  Mexicans,  and  on  the 
remaining  half  there  are  only  about  eight  Indians  who  do  their 
own  work.     In  farming,  however,  they  have  had  but  little  en- 


MEADOW    LAND — TIMBER — COAL. 

On  Cat  Creek,  about  forty  miles  from  the  agency,  we  were  told, 
was  to  be  found  the  richest  of  natural  vega  or  meadow  land,  and 
in  coming  from  Juanita  on  the  railroad  we  had  been  impressed 
with  the  magnificent  pine  timber  that  covers  a  large  portion  of 
the  eastern  quarter  of  the  reservation.  There  is  coal  also  in 
this  part  of  the  reserve,  which,  like  the  timber,  has  already  ex- 
cited the  cupidity  of  the  whites.  Pennsylvania  experts,  we  were 
informed,  have  examined  the  coal-beds  and  found  them  very 
rich. 

INCOMPLETE   AS   A   CATTLE  COUNTRY. 

As  a  cattle  country  the  present  reservation  is  probably  not  ab- 
solutely complete  in  itself,  a  winter  range  being  needed.  It  is 
apparent  from  the  maps  that  the  valleys  of  the  reservation  run 
north  and  south,  and  that  the  water-courses  are  separated  from 
each  other  not  only  by  stretches  of  flat,  mesa  country,  but  by 
fairly  formidable  bluffs  and  ridges.  We  were  informed  that  the 
western  end  of  the  reservation,  that  is  the  country  beyond  the 
Mancos  River,  would  afford  a  good  and  sufficiently  extensive 
winter  range  for  the  ponies  that  the  Indians  possess,  were  it  not 
for  the  difficulties  which  exist  in  driving  them  eastward  and 
westward,  and  also  for  the  fact  that  the  country  continues  to  fall 
off  in  point  of  altitude  after  the  Utah  line  is  reached,  which 
makes  it  difficult  to  keep  stock  from  passing  across  the  line.  The 
rest  of  the  reservation  is  probably  too  high,  and  therefore  too 
cold,  to  afford  good  winter  ranges.  It  must  therefore  be  admitted, 
that  for  the  purpose  of  cattle-raising  the  present  reservation  is 
not  satisfactory,  and  there  would  therefore  be  some  reason  for 
removing  the  Indians,  supposing  it  to  be  desirable  that  they 
should  go  into  the  cattle  business. 


CLIMATE   NOT   TOO   SEVERE   FOR   SHEEP   AND   GOATS. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  present  reservation  is  apparently  all 
that  could  be  desired  for  sheep  and  goats,  the  climate  not  being 
too  severe  for  them. 


THE    RESERVATION    NO    BARRIER   TO   THE    WHITES. 

As  has  already  been  suggested,  the  reservation  has  formed  no 
barrier  between  the  whites  on  either  side  of  it.  This  has  been  a 
necessity  in  the  past  owing  to  the  peculiar  shape  of  the  reserve, 
and  the  intercourse  which  has  resulted  with  the  whites  has  not 
been  without  its  advantages.  Isolation  is  not  the  cure  for  the 
troubles  that  these  Indians  suffer  from.  Their  cousins,  the  Un- 
compahgres,  have  been  "isolated"  in  Utah  since  1880,  very 
much  as  it  is  now  proposed  to  isolate  the  Southern  Utes,  and 
are  to-day  no  better  off  and  no  further  advanced  in  civilization 
than  the  latter. 

THE   PEOPLE   AROUND   THEM. 

The  people  along  the  northern  boundary  of  the  present 
reservation  are  mainly  ranchmen  and  cattle  owners,  and  if  it  be 
thought  that  the  intercourse  with  the  Mexicans  on  the  reserve 
and  to  the  south  of  it  has  been  hurtful  to  the  Indians,  it  should 
be  remembered  that  this  intercourse  will  certainly  be  kept  up 
on  the  proposed  reservation.  The  influence  of  the  Mexican  has 
been  very  far  from  an  unmixed  evil.  What  little  instruction  and 
help  the  Southern  Utes  have  had  in  farming,  other  than  the  mere 
supply  of  seed  and  implements  and  the  construction  of  a  few 
irrigating  ditches,  has  come  to  them  from  the  wretched  Mexican, 
who  in  that  part  of  the  country  is  always  a  tiller  of  the  ground, 
and  who  often  lives  with  the  Indian  in  his  wicky-up,  and  asso- 
ciates with  him  in  a  way  that  is  totally  foreign  to  our  Anglo- 
Saxon  instincts. 


THE  PROPOSED  RESERVATION. 
The  district  to  which  it  has  been  proposed  to  remove  the 
Southern  Utes  is  about  three  times  as  large  as  their  present  reser- 
vation. It  includes  a  territory  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  line 
between  Utah  and  Colorado,  on  the  north  by  a  line  running 
due  west  to  the  Colorado  River,  on  the  west  by  the  Colorado, 
and  on  the  south  by  the  San  Juan.  The  ' '  treaty ' ' — (if  such  it  can 
be  called.  Congress  having  decided  in  1872  that  no  more 
treaties  should  be  made  with  Indians) — the  "treaty"  to  which 
the  commissioners  in  1888  obtained  the  consent  of  three-fourths 


8 

of  these  Utes,  and  which  the  last  Congress  refused  to  ratify — 
gives  the  Indians  the  right  to  liunt  in  the  La  Salle  Mountains, 
which  are  some  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  beyond  the  northern  line 
of  the  proposed  reservation. 


A    "no-man's    land" — SCARCELY    ANY   SETTLEMENT — EXTREME 
SCARCITY    OF   WATER. 

The  greater  part  of  the  district  has  been,  and  will  always  be, 
unless  it  is  turned  into  a  reservation,  a  "  no  man's  land,"  owing 
to  the  extreme  scarcity  of  running  water.  But  for  the 
cattle  ranges  which  it  contains,  and  perhaps  the  gold  which  has 
been  found  along  its  western  boundary,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why 
any  white  man  should  have  rested  within  its  limits.  It  contains, 
in  fact,  only  three  settlements  that  are  in  any  sense  worthy  of  the 
name.  The  largest  of  these  is  Bluff  City,  containing  twenty- 
five  Mormon  families  and  about  one  hundred  and  forty  people. 
The  next  in  point  of  size  is  Monticello,  which  contains  as  many 
as  twelve  or  fifteen  families,  and  the  third  is  South  Montezuma, 
six  miles  from  Monticello,  which  consists  of  a  little  saw-mill  and 
perhaps  four  ranches.  These  are  all  Mormon  outposts, — at- 
tempts more  or  less  unsuccessful  to  bring  southwestern  Utah 
under  the  dominion  of  the  Saints,  and  it  is  probable  that  even 
to  day,  when  much  of  the  arid  land  in  Utah  is  being  subdued 
by  gentile  enterprise,  not  one  of  these  places  would  exist  were 
it  not  for  the  peculiar  discipline  and  perseverance  of  the 
Mormon  Church. 

DRY   VALLEY — CARLISLE'S. 

We  started  in  on  horseback  from  the  La  Salle  Mountains. 
The  day  that  we  crossed  the  north  line  of  the  proposed 
reservation  we  rode  some  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  through 
what  is  known  as  Dry  Valley.  The  name  is  well  deserved,  inas- 
much as  after  the  month  of  June  there  is  never  any  water  to  be 
found  in  it  except  in  tanks,  that  is,  in  holes  in  the  rocks,  in 
which  the  rain  collects.  We  spent  our  first  night  on  the  pro- 
posed reservation  at  Carlisle's  ranch.  Carlisle  is  an  Englishman 
who  established  himself  on  the  Blue  Mountains  some  years  ago. 
He  has  sold  a  part  of  his  stock,  and  entertains  a  hope  that  the 


Government  will  buy  his  improvements  and  turn  his  home-ranch 
into  the  new  agency. 

The  upper  slopes  of  the  Blue  Mountains  are  fairly  well  tim- 
bered and  contain,  we  are  told,  numerous  springs ;  yet  after  the 
month  of  July  there  is  nothing  worthy  of  the  name  of  stream  that 
finds  its  way  as  far  as  the  zone  of  scrub  oak,  which  in  this 
part  of  the  country  marks  an  altitude  of  between  seven  and  eight 
thousand  feet.  Owing  to  the  intense  evaporation  and  to  the 
character  of  the  soil,  what  water  after  July  finds  its  way  below 
the  scrub  oak  entirely  disappears  after  it  has  gone  a  distance  of 
two  or  three  miles.  It  may  truthfully  be  said  of  this  country 
that  where  there  is  sufficient  water  the  altitude  is  too  great  for 
farming,  and  that  where  the  altitude  is  not  too  great  there  is  no 
water.  Carlisle  has  indeed  water  enough  to  cultivate  some  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  acres,  but  this  is  his  utmost  limit, 
although  he  has  nineteen  hundred  and  twenty  acres  under 
fence. 

MONTICELLO. 

The  Mormons  at  Monticello,  some  six  miles  south  of  Carlisle's 
ranch,  have  not  more  than  enough  water  to  cultivate  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  acres  at  the  utmost.  Last  summer 
they  had  not  even  water  enough  for  their  second  irrigation.  We 
rode  over  both  places  and  saw  the  head  of  a  small  brook  called 
the  north  fork  of  North  Montezuma  Creek,  at  the  place  where 
it  is  tapped  by  Carlisle  and  the  water  diverted  in  the  direction 
of  his  ranch.  The  entire  flow  of  water  is  thus  withdrawn.  We 
also  saw  the  main  trench  built  by  the  Monticello  people  and 
the  south  fork  of  the  creek,  just  below  the  point  where  this  latter 
trench  is  taken  out.  The  arroyo  was  absolutely  dry,  proving  that 
the  Monticello  people,  as  well  as  Carlisle,  use  up  their  entire 
supply  of  water.  Monticello  is  a  poor,  shabby  little  settlement, 
and  would  certainly  not  have  lasted  so  long  were  it  not  that 
most  of  its  inhabitants  range  cattle  in  the  vicinity,  and  find  it 
cheaper  to  raise  fodder  for  man  and  beast  at  home  than  to  buy 
it  many  miles  away  and  bring  it  over  the  country  under  conditions 
that  as  yet  make  transportation  both  difficult  and  expensive. 
This  summer,  notwithstanding  an  unusual  rainfall,  their  farms 
only  produced  about  half  what  they  should  have  done.     Farming 


lO 


is  necessarily  on  a  small  scale,  and  at  a  great  disadvantage,  where 
only  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  acres  at  the  utmost  can  be 
irrigated,  and  the  nearest  market,  were  it  not  for  the  cattle 
interests  on  the  spot,  would  be  more  than  sixty  miles  away. 


STORING   WATER  IMPRACTICABLE. 

It  has  been  alleged  that  a  much  larger  acreage  at  Carlisle's 
and  Monticello  might  be  brought  under  cultivation  if  reservoirs 
were  built  upon  the  slopes  of  the  Blue  Mountains,  in  which  the 
water  could  be  stored  until  the  time  of  the  second  and  third 
irrigations.  This,  however,  would  be  very  difficult  and  expensive, 
as  the  slopes  are  exceedingly  steep,  and  would  not  lend  them- 
selves easily  to  the  construction  of  artificial  basins.  It  would, 
in  fact,  cost  so  much  money  to  construct  the  necessary  reser- 
voirs that  the  possibility  of  thus  increasing  the  irrigable  acreage 
is  entirely  too  remote  to  be  considered  in  discussing  the  merits 
of  the  country  as  a  reservation  for  the  Indians. 


PIUTE   SPRING — SCARCITY   OF   WATER. 

While  at  Carlisle's  ranch  we  made  a  day's  excursion  to  Piute 
Spring.  On  account  of  the  extreme  rareness  of  drinking  holes 
this  spring  has  acquired  considerable  celebrity,  not  only  among 
the  cattlemen  of  the  vicinity,  but  also  among  those  who  have 
interested  themselves  in  the  question  of  removal.  The  commis- 
sioners in  1888  visited  the  spot  and  were  apparently  charmed 
with  it.  It  is  fifteen  miles  east  of  Carlisle  and  about  ten  miles 
from  the  Colorado  line.  During  most  of  the  summer  months  it 
puts  forth  enough  water  to  fill  two  ordinary  stable  troughs.  As 
we  saw  it,  a  feeble  little  stream,  not  more  than  an  inch  in  diam- 
eter, was  issuing  from  the  second  trough,  and  seemed  to  disap- 
pear entirely  about  two  hundred  yards  from  the  place.  Two  of 
Carlisle's  men,  who  were  familiar  with  the  country,  told  us  that 
in  a  circle  drawn  with  a  radius  of  fifteen  miles  around  this 
spring  there  might  be  as  many  as  eight  or  ten  other  smaller 
springs.  In  the  large  area  thus  described  there  is  after  the 
month  of  July  no  running  water  other  than  that  already  men- 
tioned. 


II 

SOUTH   MONTEZUMA. 

South  Montezuma  consists  of  a  small  saw-mill  and  a  store,  a 
ranch  owned  by  the  L.  C.  Cattle  Company,  on  which  there  are 
a  few  acres  of  alfalfa,  and  two  or  three  other  little  ranches — 
in  all  not  more  than  forty  acres  under  cultivation.  There  is  not 
water  enough  for  any  more  land  to  be  brought  under  irrigation 
at  this  point,  and  at  the  time  we  were  there  we  found  that  the 
ranches  already  fenced  were  suffering  from  want  of  water. 


ONLY   THREE   RANCHES  BETWEEN  SOUTH   MONTEZUMA   AND   BLUFF 

CITY. 

Beyond  South  Montezuma  there  are  but  three  points  at  which 
anything  like  a  ranch  exists  outside  of  the  Mormon  settlement 
of  Bluff  City.  These  are:  first,  what  is  known  as  the  Dodge 
ranch,  which  lies  to  one  side  of  the  road  to  Bluff  City  and  only 
a  few  miles  from  South  Montezuma,  and  on  which  there  is  some 
meadow  land,  affording  natural  hay  and  enabling  the  men  who 
have  squatted  down  upon  it  to  maintain  a  dairy.  They  raise, 
however,  no  crops. 

The  second  point  is  the  ranch  of  the  L.  C.  Cattle  Company, 
at  the  junction  of  Johnston  and  Recapture  Creeks.  Here  some 
ten  or  fifteen  acres  are  at  present  irrigated.  The  number  might 
be  increased  to  twenty-five,  but  not  further. 

The  third  point  at  which  there  is  anything  like  a  ranch 
between  South  Montezuma  and  the  San  Juan  is  a  small  farm  at 
the  head  of  Comb  Wash,  on  which,  we  were  told,  there  are 
about  six  acres  under  cultivation,  and  at  which  as  much  as  ten 
or  fifteen  acres  might  be  irrigated. 


SOUTH   MONTEZUMA   TO   BLUFF   CITY. 

In  the  long  stretch  of  thirty-five  miles  between  South  Monte- 
zuma and  Bluff  City  we  found  drinkable  water  only  in  two 
places,  both  near  the  end  of  our  day's  journey.  One  was  in  the 
canon  of  Recapture  Creek,  where  we  discovered  some  warm 
water,  scarcely  flowing,  rather  creeping  sluggishly  from  pool  to 
pool,  and  the  other  place  was  within  a  mile  or  two  of  Bluff 
City,  in  what  rejoices  in  the  name  of  Cow  Canon. 


12 

BLUFF   CITY — GREAT    DIFFICULTY    IN    IRRIGATING   FROM   THE   SAN 

JUAN. 

Bluff  City  is  a  little  settlement  of  which  the  Mormons  have 
every  reason  to  be  proud.  In  the  face  of  almost  insuperable 
obstacles  a  number  of  families  were  sent  out  in  1880  to  settle  the 
bottom  land  of  the  San  Juan.  Of  the  seventy-five  or  eighty 
families  that  originally  came  into  the  country  but  twenty-five 
are  at  present  to  be  found  there,  and  these  are  all  at  Bluff  City. 
The  life  of  the  settlers  has  been  a  continual  battle  with  the 
river.  The  latter  affording  the  only  available  supply  for  irriga- 
tion, they  were  obliged  to  face  the  difficulties  arising  from 
its  unstable  and  treacherous  banks  and  its  sudden  and  disas- 
trous floods.  They  at  first  used  pumps  to  raise  the  water  from 
the  river,  but  these  were  one  after  another  destroyed  and  washed 
away,  so  that  not  one  of  them  remains.  The  Bluff  City  people 
at  present  tap  the  river  by  means  of  an  ordinary  trench.  Their 
first  ditch  was  begun  in  1880.  It  was  subsequently  found  too 
low,  and  the  present  one  was  commenced  in  1883.  The  task 
proved  one  of  exceeding  difficulty,  and  if  we  place  the  labor 
involved  at  a  fair  rate  of  wages,  we  shall  be  fully  justified  in  esti- 
mating its  cost  at  ;^6o,ooo.  It  is  only  some  five  and  a  half  miles 
long,  and  yet  as  much  as  six  or  seven  hundred  dollars  have  to  be 
spent  annually  to  keep  it  in  repair. 

Bluff  City  irrigation  presents  a  difficult  problem.  Either  the 
trench  is  so  low  that  at  high  water  its  mouth  is  washed  away 
and  obliterated  by  the  river,  or  else  the  trench  is  so  high  that 
toward  the  end  of  the  summer  no  water  can  possibly  find  its 
way  into  it.  There  seems  to  be  no  happy  medium.  It  is 
almost  incomprehensible  how  the  Mormons  of  Bluff  City  have 
persevered  in  their  purpose  of  settlement  in  the  face  of  the 
appalling  obstacles  that  have  existed.  For  the  first  three  or  four 
years  the  men  had  to  seek  employment  in  the  summer  on  the 
railroads  in  Colorado  in  order  to  make  enough  money  to  buy  the 
necessary  provisions  to  carry  them  through  their  winter's  work. 

THE   UNGOVERNABLE   RIVER — THE   ACREAGE    UNDER   CULTIVATION 
ON    THE   BLUFF    CITY    BOTTOM. 

The  road  extending  up  the  valley  of  the  San  Juan  eastward 
from  Bluff  City  would  do  credit  to  a  much  richer  settlement. 


13 

Owing  to  the  fierceness  of  the  floods  and  the  precipitous  charac- 
ter of  the  bluffs  which  line  the  bottom,  land  in  places  had 
actually  to  be  manufactured  for  the  road  ;  and  for  miles  the  river 
bank  had  to  be  rip-rapped,  that  is,  protected  and  held  in  place> 
by  branches  of  Cottonwood  trees  and  portions  of  debris,  so  as  to 
prevent  and  check  the  undermining  to  which  it  is  subjected. 
The  trench  at  its  upper  end,  where  it  is  taken  out  of  the  San  Juan, 
is  shielded  by  a  wooden  muzzle,  consisting  of  pieces  of  timber 
driven  into  the  bank  in  order  to  save  the  trench  from  the  wash. 
As  it  is,  notwithstanding  that  there  are  at  least  seven  hundred 
acres  of  irrigable  land  around  Bluff  City,  and  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  the  climate  is  all  that  can  be  desired,  there  are  at 
present  no  more  than  two  hundred  acres  under  cultivation. 


OTHER   BOTTOMS   OF   THE    SAN    JUAN — MONEY  WASTED — 
DESTRUCTION    OF    PROPERTY. 

The  history  of  the  other  bottoms  of  the  San  Juan  has  been  a 
history  of  complete  and  expensive  failures.  Eastward  from  Bluff 
City  the  first  bottom  was  originally  surveyed  into  fourteen  lots 
of  an  acre  each,  and  improved  until  1884,  when  a  great  flood 
swept  everything  away.  Mr.  William  Adams,  a  retired  Bishop 
of  the  Mormon  Church,  whom  we  met  at  Bluff  City,  was  the 
principal  loser  on  this  bottom.  Thirty  acres  which  he  had 
taken  up  and  had  been  farming  were  utterly  ruined.  His 
improvements,  crops,  vineyard,  fencing,  and  a  large  and  expen- 
sive current  wheel  were  all  washed  away  into  the  river.  Three 
thousand  dollars  would  not  cover  the  loss  that  he  sustained. 
Beyond  Montezuma  Wash,  some  distance  further  to  the  east, 
many  acres  of  farming  land,  four  current  wheels,  twenty  houses 
and  corrals  were  all  destroyed  by  the  same  flood.  The  house  of 
a  Mr.  Allen  was  washed  into  the  river,  together  with  his  out- 
houses, corrals,  and  stables,  and  it  was  by  the  skin  of  their  teeth 
that  the  members  of  his  family  were  saved  from  being  drowned. 
In  going  to  Guillett's  trading  post,  at  the  mouth  of  the  McElmo 
Wash,  we  saw  the  only  traces  that  now  exist  of  the  farms  that 
once  covered  a  great  part  of  the  bottoms  lying  to  the  east  of 
Bluff  City.  These  traces  were  a  few  ruined  houses  and  some 
abandoned  fencing. 


14 

LOWER   McELMO   CAfJON. 

In  the  course  of  the  twenty-five  miles  drive  to  Guillett's  we 
saw  no  water,  except  that  in  the  river,  until  we  reached  the 
McElmo  Wash.  When  we  crossed  the  latter  we  found  that  there 
was  about  an  inch  or  two  of  water  creeping  slowly  in  places 
over  its  sandy  bed.  Guillett,  the  trader,  said  indeed  that  there 
was  room  and  water  enough  for  ten  or  twelve  ranches  in  the 
caiion  of  the  lower  McElmo.  Considering  the  extreme  meagre- 
ness  of  the  supply  of  water  at  the  time  of  the  year  when  it  is 
most  needed,  and  the  character  of  land  on  either  side  of  the 
wash,  it  is  our  opinion  that  this  was  an  unreasonably  large  esti- 
mate. Bishop  Hammond,  of  the  Mormon  Church,  who  was 
with  us,  had  rated  at  a  much  lower  figure  the  irrigable  acreage 

of  the  cafion. 

%• 

FROM   THE   McELMO   WASH   TO   THE   COLORADO   LINE. 

Beyond  Guillett's,  and  between  him  and  the  Colorado  line, 
there  are  only  two  settlers.  One  of  them  has  a  ranch  consisting 
of  some  ten  acres  under  cultivation,  which,  indeed,  are  not  arti- 
ficially irrigated,  but  only  naturally  watered  by  the  San  Juan  per- 
colating through  its  banks,  advantage  having  been  taken  of  the 
fact  that  the  strip  of  land  lies  somewhat  below  the  level  of  the 
river.  The  other  settler  has  simply  a  trading  post  and  does  not 
do  any  farming. 

ONLV     ONE     HUNDRED     AND     SIXTY     ACRES     UNDER    CULTIVATION 
ALONG   THE    SIXTY-TWO    MILES    OF   THE   SAN   JUAN. 

To  the  west  of  Bluff  City  there  is  not  a  single  settler  or  ranch 
of  any  kind  on  the  banks  of  the  San  Juan.  This  makes  along  the 
entire  Utah  frontage  of  the  river,  as  it  were,  a  distance  of  some 
sixty-two  miles,  a  total  of  only  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  under 
cultivation. 

CONCLUSION   AS    TO   THE  BOTTOMS    OF   THE    SAN  JUAN  :     THEY  MAY 
BE    DISMISSED    FROM   THE    DISCUSSION. 

All  that  your  committee  saw,  all  the  statistics  they  were  able 
to  collect,  point  to  the  conclusion  reached  by  many  as  to  the 
difficulties  of  farming  along  the  San  Juan  River.      Unless  the 


15 

Government  is  to  stand  behind  each  Indian  and  furnish  him  not 
only  with  materials,  but  with  about  three  times  as  much  instruc- 
tion and  encouragement  as  it  has  grudgingly  given  in  the  past, 
the  country  bordering  on  the  San  Juan  may  be  entirely  disre- 
garded in  considering  the  agricultural  capabilities  of  the  pro- 
posed reservation. 


WESTERN     PART    OF    THE    PROPOSED     RESERVATION — SCARCITY    OF 
WATER   BETWEEN   BLUFF   CITY   AND   THE   COLORADO   RIVER. 

Our  journey  from  Bluff  City  to  the  Colorado  River  showed  us 
a  country  more  arid  perhaps  and  much  more  broken  than  that 
which  we  had  traversed  in  coming  down  from  South  Montezuma. 
For  the  first  two  nights  we  were  obliged  to  make  dry  camps, 
depending  upon  the  water  that  we  had  brought  with  us  from  the 
one  or  two  fresh  springs  that  we  had  seen  during  the  day.  We 
passed  not  more  than  ten  or  twelve  springs  on  our  journey  to 
Dandy's  Crossing  on  the  Colorado  River,  a  distance  of  over  one 
hundred  miles  from  Bluff  City,  and  most  of  these  were  alkaline, 
or  if  they  were  not  too  bad,  even  for  our  horses,  were  so  hidden 
away  from  the  trail  we  were  following  as  to  be  almost  inaccessi- 
ble. Experience  proved  that  watering  horses,  even  when  the 
proximity  of  a  spring  had  been  detected,  was  by  no  means  an 
easy  undertaking,  the  approaches  to  the  springs  being  usually  so 
rocky  and  steep  that  it  took  a  long  time  and  much  coaxing  to 
get  the  horses  down  to  them. 


THE    COUNTRY    LYING   TO   THE    SOUTHWEST    OF   THE   MOUNTAINS, 
BROKEN    AND    COVERED    WITH    PINON. 

On  our  second  day's  ride  from  Bluff  City  we  crossed  a  divide, 
from  the  top  of  which  we  could  see  a  great  part  of  the  country 
lying  between  us  and  the  confluence  of  the  San  Juan  and  the 
Colorado.  It  appeared  to  be  exceedingly  broken,  and,  like  most 
of  the  country  we  had  come  through,  it  was  almost  entirely 
covered  with  piiion. 

From  the  Government  map,  which  was  furnished  us,  it  might  be 
supposed  that  the  country  lying  to  the  southwest  of  the  Blue 
Mountains  is  a  plain.     As  a  matter  of  fact  we  found  that  all  of 


i6 

it  was  exceedingly  broken  and  composed  of  square- cut  tables 
dropping  off  precipitously  into  canons.  Most  of  it  we  also 
found  was  so  thickly  covered  with  piiion  as,  for  that  reason 
alone,  to  afford  scarcely  any  winter  range  for  cattle. 


DIFFICULTY    IN    CROSSING   THE    COUNTRY. 

The  part  of  the  Colorado  River  which,  if  the  Indians  are  re- 
moved, will  form  the  western  boundary  of  their  reservation  is 
exceedingly  inaccessible.  This  is  due  to  the  precipitous  walls 
of  its  canon,  and  also  to  the  exceedingly  sinuous  character  of  the 
lateral  canons  which  lead  into  it.  We  heard  of  but  three  points 
between  Grand  Valley  and  the  Arizona  line  where  cattle  or 
horses  can  be  taken  to  the  river.  There  must,  of  course,  be 
other  places  where  cattle  can  be  got  to  it,  but  these  are  known 
only  to  a  few  individuals.  We  found  that  it  was  necessary  in 
following  the  trail  to  go  many  miles  out  of  our  way  on  account 
of  the  broken  character  of  the  country,  straight  lines  being  abso- 
lutely impossible.  As  we  approached  the  river  our  course  became 
more  and  more  sinuous,  and  at  one  time,  on  the  last  afternoon 
of  our  ride,  we  were  probably  within  two  miles  of  the  river  as 
the  bird  flies,  and  yet  really  as  much  as  a  ten  miles*  journey  away 
from  it. 


THE   COUNTRY    TO   THE   WEST   OF   THE    MOUNTAINS    STILL   MORE 

BROKEN. 

Dandy's  Crossing  is  about  a  mile  above  the  mouth  of  Trachite 
Creek,  and  some  twenty  miles  below  Cataract  Canon.  We 
were  told  that  the  country  to  the  north  of  the  lateral  canon,  by 
means  of  which  we  had  finally  reached  the  Colorado,  was  if 
anything  rougher  and  more  impassable  than  the  country  to  the 
south.  From  the  brow  of  the  Elk  Mountain,  which  is  really  a 
high  table  at  the  foot  of  the  Blue  Mountains  proper,  we  obtained 
an  extensive  view  of  this  western  part  of  the  proposed  reserva- 
tion. We  could  see  stretching  out  before  us,  and  some  two 
thousand  feet  below  the  altitude  that  we  had  reached,  two  or 
three  cailons  similar  to  the  one  which  we  had  passed  through  in 
coming  from  the  Colorado.     In  the  distance  we  could  see  the 


17 

ridges  of  the  Henry  Mountains,  and  between  us  and  them  the 
long  break  in  the  surface  of  the  country  through  which  flowed 
the  Colorado.  This  break  was  noticeable,  however,  only  because 
of  its  length  and  continuity,  for  the  country,  as  far  as  we  could 
see,  was  indeed  so  broken,  so  cut  into  and  worn  away  by  the 
torrents  of  water  which  during  the  winter  and  early  spring  find 
their  way  into  the  river,  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  describe  it 
to  an  eastern  man  who  has  been  accustomed  only  to  the  gentle 
and  rounded  surface  of  our  Appalachian  region.  The  entire 
country  was  almost  wholly  covered  with  pifion,  and  where  not 
so  carpeted  the  sandstone  cliffs  appeared  to  be  absolutely  bare  of 
vegetation.  It  was  plain  how  impossible  it  would  have  been  to 
go  directly  north  or  south,  or  even  in  such  a  broken  country  to 
travel  in  any  one  direction  for  more  than  a  mile  at  a  time. 

A    DIVERGENCE    OF    FORTY    MILES     NECESSARY    TO     REACH    INDIAN 
CREEK THE    ELK    MOUNTAIN — DUTCH    AND    DAY'S. 

After  leaving  the  Colorado  River  our  objective  point  was 
Indian  Creek,  on  which  we  had  been  told  there  was  a  certain 
amount  of  irrigable  land  ;  to  reach  it  we  had  to  go  at  least  forty 
miles  out  of  our  way,  as  it  was  absolutely  impossible  to  traverse 
the  interlying  country  more  directly.  The  detour  gave  us  an 
opportunity  of  seeing  the  Elk  Mountain,  which  affords  an  excel- 
lent summer  range  for  cattle,  and  a  small  ranch  familiarly  known 
as  Dutch  and  Day's,  in  what  is  called  Dark  Canon.  The  owners 
of  this  ranch  have  some  fine  natural  meadow  land  and  about  ten 
acres  under  cultivation.  They  raise  a  little  grain  and  potatoes, 
but  their  corn  is  not  a  success,  the  altitude  being  too  great  and 
the  canon  too  narrow.  Twenty-five  acres  would  probably  be 
the  maximum  that  could  be  brought  under  cultivation  at  this 
point. 

ONLY   ONE   LITTLE    PATCH    OF    IRRIGABLE    LAND    BETWEEN    INDIAN 

CREEK   AND    THE  JUNCTION    OF   THE   SAN   JUAN    AND 

COLORADO. 

Between  the  ranches  on  Indian  Creek  and  Dandy's  Crossing, 
or,  for  that  matter,  between  the  ranches  on  Indian  Creek  and  the 
junction  of  the  San  Juan  and  Colorado,  there  is  not,  as  far  as  we 


i8 

could  learn,  a  single  piece  of  irrigable  land  except  this  ranch  and 
a  little  strip  on  Salt  Creek,  where  John  Brown,  one  of  the  ranch- 
men on  Indian  Creek,  had  fenced  in  a  strip  of  meadow  and 
harvests  annually  some  natural  hay.  He  might  at  this  point,  if 
he  chose,  irrigate  some  fifteen  or  twenty  acres.  Except  for  the 
purpose  of  stock-raising  the  entire  country  between  Indian  Creek 
and  the  San  Juan  is  absolutely  good  for  nothing. 


THE     INDIAN     CREEK     COUNTRY  :     TWO    LITTLE     STREAMS   ALMOST 
EXHAUSTED    BY   A    HALF    DOZEN    RANCHES. 

The  Indian  Creek  country  is  really  composed  of  three  ranches 
on  Cottonwood  Creek  and  three  on  Indian  Creek  proper.  The 
last  of  the  three  on  Indian  Creek  is  situated  at  what  would  be 
its  junction  with  Cottonwood  Creek  if  the  latter  were  not  wholly 
used  up  by  the  two  ranches  which  draw  their  water  from  it. 
Indian  Creek  itself  is  almost  entirely  exhausted  by  the  three 
ranches  on  its  banks,  and  after  the  month  of  July  cannot  be 
seen  some  two  miles  below  the  last  ranch.  Toward  the  end  of 
August  the  creek  usually  stops  at  this  ranch,  and  except  for  a 
few  weeks  in  the  spring  it  never  reaches  the  Colorado  River. 


ITS     IRRIGABLE    ACREAGE    VERY    SMALL — TWO     HUNDRED    AND 
TEN    ACRES   AT   THE   UTMOST. 

The  total  amount  of  land  under  irrigation  upon  the  two 
streams,  if  streams  they  can  be  called,  amounts  at  the  very  most 
to  some  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  and  under  no  circumstances 
could  this  total  be  increased  to  more  than  two  hundred  and  ten 
acres.  Both  Indian  Creek  and  Cottonwood  Creek  would  be 
considered  in  most  parts  of  the  west  forlorn  little  streams,  and 
the  farming  which  is  actually  done  in  the  canons  through  which 
they  flow  would  never  probably  have  been  attempted  had  it  not 
been  for  the  cattle  interests  of  the  country.  With  perhaps  two 
exceptions,  the  men  who  own  these  six  ranches  make  their  living 
from  the  cattle  that  they  own,  and  what  little  grain  and  farm 
produce  they  raise  and  do  not  consume  is  sold  to  the  Pittsburgh 
Cattle  Company,  whose  home-ranch  is  not  more  than  sixty  or 
seventy-five  miles  distant  from  them. 


19 

CONCLUSION     AS     TO    IRRIGABLE     LAND    WITHIN    THE    LIMITS    OF 
THE    PROPOSED    RESERVATION. 

The  road  which  we  took  will  be  seen  from  the  rough  map 
prefixed  to  this  report.  We  had  been  furnished  by  Adair 
Wilson,  Esq.,  of  Durango,  who  is  one  of  the  chief  advocates  of 
the  removal,  with  a  list  of  places  to  be  visited.  We  did  our  best 
to  do  justice  to  this  itinerary,  and  visited  every  locality  that  he 
mentioned.  In  a  district  as  large  and  as  thinly  settled  as  that 
comprised  in  the  limits  of  the  proposed  reservation  it  would 
seem  impossible  that  all  the  available  spots  have  been  brought 
under  cultivation.  On  the  other  hand,  the  best  localities  certainly 
have  by  this  time  been  discovered,  and  if  our  figures  as  to  the 
total  amount  of  irrigable  land  are  necessarily  inexact,  it  must 
nevertheless  follow  from  the  facts  of  the  case  that  they  are  suffi- 
ciently near  the  truth  as  to  be  of  value.  It  may  properly  be 
inferred  that  the  «ettlements  have  been  made  on  the  best  spots, 
and  that  in  following  the  known  trails  we  necessarily  avoided 
thelrougher  ground,  and  saw  more  springs  than  we  would  have 
been  likely  to  see  if  we  had  attempted  to  travel  across  the  country 
otherwise.  Any  other  course  than  that  of  following  the  known 
trails  would  have  been  practically  impossible. 


A   TABLE   GIVING  ACREAGE   UNDER   CULTIVATION   AND   THE 
ACREAGE   THAT    MIGHT    BE    IRRIGATED. 

We  have  set  forth  in  the  following  table  the  several  points 
within  the  limits  of  the  proposed  reservation  at  which  there  is 
any  land  under  cultivation,  or  at  which  there  is  any  irrigable 
land.  Where  ranches  actually  exist  we  have  stated  the  acreage 
under  irrigation,  and  in  the  case  of  each  locality  we  have  added 
what  we  consider  to  be  the  most  liberal  estimate  consistent  with 
the  facts  of  the  acreage  that  might  be  brought  under  irrigation, 
should  the  Indians  be  removed.  For  reasons  already  given  we 
have  omitted  from  our  computation  the  irrigable  acreage  on  the 
bottom  lands  of  the  San  Juan,  and  also  any  increase  in  the  irri- 
gable acreage  conditioned  upon  the  construction  of  reservoirs  on 
the  Blue  Mountains : — 


Irrigable. 


20 

Acrrs  under 
Cultivation. 

Carlisle's  Ranch, 1 50  175 

Monticello, 175  175 

South  Montezuma 40  40 

The  Dodge  Ranch, 10 

The  L.  C.  Co.'s  Ranch  at  Johnston  and  Recapture 

Creeks, 15  25 

Bluff  City, 200  

Lower  McElmo*  Canon, 150 

Berlin's  Ranch,      10  15 

Ranch  at  head  of  Comb  Wash, 6  10 

Dutch  and  Day's  Ranch, 15  30 

John  Brown's  Ranch  on  Salt  Creek, 20 

Ranches  on  Cottonwood  Creek  : — 

Goodman's  Ranch, 5  5 

Wellborn's  Ranch, 10  10 

Ray's  Ranch, 40  40 

Ranches  on  Indian  Creek  : — 

Gilligan's  Ranch, 40  40 

Cooper  and  Turner's  Ranch, 12  62 

John  Brown's  Ranch, 50  50 

768  857 

Your  committee  went  over  the  proposed  reservation  at  what 

is  perhaps  the  driest  season  of  the  year.  We  were  actually 
within  its  limits  between  the  7th  and  the  24th  of  last  September. 
It  is  to  be  remembered,  however,  that  the  rain-fall  during  the 
spring  and  summer  had  been  unusually  large,  as,  indeed,  it  had 
been  in  most  portions  of  the  west. 


ONE     THOUSAND     TO     THREE     MILLION     NOT     AN     ENCOURAGING 
PROPORTION. 

When  it  is  considered  that  the  proposed  reservation  contains 
nearly  three  million  acres  it  will  be  seen  that  the  proportion  of 
irrigable  land  to  the  entire  amount  is  not  encouraging.  To  one 
looking  at  the  map  of  San  Juan  County,  Utah,  the  estimate  which 
we  have  made  will  probably  seem  extraordinary,  in  view  of  the 
numerous  water-courses  which  are  so  skillfully  delineated,  but  it 
is  to  be  remembered  that  these  water- courses  become  absolutely 
dry  after  July  in  every  case  except  the  following  :  Indian  Creek, 
the  North  Montezuma,  the  South  Montezuma,  and  the  McElmo. 
We,  of  course,  leave  out  the  Colorado  and  San  Juan. 


21 

ANOTHER    ASPECT   OF   THE    PROPOSED     RESERVATION:     A    FEARFUL 
DISTRICT   FOR   INDIAN    FIGHTING. 

Besides  its  agricultural  possibilities,  or  rather  its  agricultural 
impossibilities,  there  are  other  features  of  the  proposed  reserva- 
tion which  should  be  considered.  It  is  not  only  a  huge  "  no 
man's  land,"  that  being,  as  past  experience  gives  us  a  right  to 
infer,  a  reason  for  its  having  been  picked  out  for  the  Indian, 
but  it  also  contains  some  of  the  roughest  and  most  ragged 
country  in  Utah.  It  is  not  only  a  piece  of  territory  in  which 
springs  or  drinking-holes  are  exceedingly  rare  and  infrequent, 
but  a  large  portion  of  it  is  so  broken  and  irregular  as  to  make 
it  a  fearful  district  for  Indian  fighting.  In  White  Cafion,  on 
our  ride  to  the  Colorado,  we  saw  a  rough  gravestone  at  a  point 
called  Soldiers'  Crossing.  Some  years  ago  a  band  of  Utes 
and  Piutes,  after  stealing  some  cattle,  was  chased  through  this 
part  of  the  country  by  the  military.  Two  scouts  of  the  latter 
were  in  advance  of  their  companions  only  a  few  hundred  yards 
when  they  reached  the  point  to  which  we  have  referred.  The 
Indians,  who  were  ensconced  on  either  side  of  the  canon, 
hidden  probably  in  the  dense  growth  of  piiion,  shot  and 
wounded  the  two  scouts.  The  character  of  the  country  was 
such  that  their  companions  realized  how  hopeless  it  would  be  to 
go  to  the  rescue,  and  at  once  turned  back,  leaving  the  scouts  to 
die  where  they  had  fallen.  It  was  over  a  year  afterward  that 
two  prospectors,  going  through  the  country,  put  the  bones  into 
a  gunny  sack  and  buried  them  at  a  point  not  far  from  the  place 
where  the  scouts  had  been  shot.  Many  other  illustrations  might 
be  added  of  the  futility  of  pursuing  red  men,  or  even  white  men 
for  that  matter,  into  this  part  of  the  country.  A  few  Indians 
knowing  the  watering  places  could  easily  keep  a  large  force  of 
regulars  at  bay. 

A   SECURE   RETREAT   FOR   FUGITIVES   FROM  JUSTICE. 

The  Blue  Mountains,  indeed,  and  the  country  beyond  them, 
as  every  inhabitant  of  Western  Colorado  knows,  have  a  reputa- 
tion by  no  means  enviable.  When  a  train  is  held  up,  or 
any  other  daring  robbery  committed,  the  Blue  Mountains  are 
immediately  fixed  upon  as  the  probable  refuge  to  which  the 


22 

offenders .  have  fled.  Thus,  when  one  of  the  trains  going  into 
Denver  was  stopped  and  robbed  on  the  first  day  of  last  Septem- 
ber, only  a  few  days  before  we  reached  the  proposed  reservation, 
it  was  generally  assumed  by  the  people  of  western  Colorado 
that  "the  boys"  had  sought  concealment  in  the  Blue  Mountain 
country.  The  character  of  the  region  is  such  that  when  an 
armed  outlaw  succeeds  in  reaching  it,  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
overtake  and  capture  him.  Last  July,  at  the  little  town  of 
Monticello,  a  man  named  Roach  killed  one  or  two  people  at  an 
evening  party  and  escaped,  as  everybody  thought,  to  the  coun- 
try lying  to  the  west.  About  three  days  were  spent  in  his  pur- 
suit, but  without  success,  and,  as  far  as  we  know,  he  has  not  yet 
been  brought  to  justice. 

A  BAND   OF    **PIUTES"    ALREADY   ON    THE    PROPOSED    RESERVA- 
TION. 

In  this  connection  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  there  are 
already  roaming  through  the  proposed  reservation  a  band  of 
some  fifty  Indians  who  are  locally  known  as  **  renegades." 
They  are  perhaps  properly  called  Piutes,  although  the  other 
name  truthfully  describes  them.  They  have,  we  believe,  never 
had  any  treaty  relations  with  the  United  States  Government, 
and  are  even  wilder  than  the  Weeminuches,  who  are  indeed 
the  least  civilized  of  the  three  tribes  of  the  Southern  Utes. 
These  "renegades  "  have  in  times  past  given  the  whites  around 
them  no  little  trouble,  and  it  is  now  proposed  to  "  round  them 
up,"  as  it  were,  by  driving  in  among  them  the  Southern  Utes, 
who  have  had  advantages  which  they  have  not  had,  and  who,  as 
a  consequence,  are  further  advanced  along  the  road  to  civiliza- 
tion. If  this  is  no  injustice  as  regards  the  Weeminuches,  it  cer- 
tainly is  an  outrage  on  the  other  two  tribes,  who  have  made  at 
least  a  start  toward  civilization,  and  of  whom  nearly  thirty-two 
fs^milies  out  of  a  total  of  about  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  are 
now  settled  upon  farms. 

MINING   CLAIMS   ON    THE   WESTERN    BOUNDARY. 

A  large  number  of  placer  mining  claims  have  been  taken  up 
along  that  part  of  the  Colorado  River  which,  if  the  Indians  are 
removed,  will  form  the  western  boundary  of  their  reservation. 


23 

We  found  that  these  in  all  numbered  about  one  hundred  and 
eighty,  about  one  hundred  being  located  along  the  western,  and 
about  eighty  along  the  eastern  bank  of  the  fiver.  Three  or 
four  appeared  to  have  been  taken  up  along  the  north  bank  of  the 
San  Juan.  Those  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Colorado  ran  from 
March  27,  1887,  to  July  21,  1891,  and  covered  an  area  of  about 
four  thousand  acres.  These  figures  are  the  result  of  a  personal 
examination  of  the  books  at  Dandy's  Crossing  kept  in  the 
Recorder's  Office  for  the  White  Canon  Mining  District. 

We  were  told  that  all  the  bars  of  sand  which  are  not  too  high 
for  the  use  of  water  from  the  river  are  taken  up  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Dirty  Devil,  twelve  miles  north  of  Dandy's  Crossing, 
southward  as  far  as  Lee's  Ferry,  a  distance  of  about  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  miles,  and  it  was  represented  to  us  upon  what 
seemed  to  be  reliable  authority  that  many  of  the  bars  would 
yield  between  twenty-five  and  fifty  cents  of  gold  to  the  cubic 
yard.  In  answer  to  the  fact  that  but  a  smfall  number  of  these 
bars  have  as  yet  been  worked,  it  was  said  that  the  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  getting  water  on  them  were  considerable,  that  the 
fall  of  the  river  was  so  slight  and  the  walls  of  the  canon  so  pre- 
cipitous as  to  make  the  construction  of  trenches  almost  imprac- 
ticable, and  that  the  system  of  raising  the  water  by  pumps  had 
therefore  been  adopted. 


MINING   COMPANIES   ALREADY   IN   THE   FIELD. 

We  were  informed  that  the  Colorado  River  Placer  Mining 
Company  had  already  entered  upon  active  operations  ;  that  it  had 
spent  in  all  between  twenty-five  and  thirty  thousand  dollars,  and 
as  much  as  twelve  thousand  dollars  for  one  plant  alone.  We  were 
told  of  a  California  company  which  had  bought  up  some  claims 
along  the  eastern  side  of  the  river,  and  had  spent  upon  them  as 
much  as  six  thousand  dollars.  We  were  further  informed  of  one 
or  two  other  corporations  now  in  existence  and  possessing  the 
right  to  purchase  and  operate  claims  along  the  Colorado  River 
north  of  the  San  Juan.  Our  information  concerning  these 
companies,  with  the  exception  of  the  California  one,  was  ob- 
tained in  each  case  from  officers  or  directors  whom  we  saw  in 
Denver  after  our  journey  was  over. 


24 

Knowing  how  little  one  can  rely  upon  the  statements  of  per- 
sons interested  in  the  development  of  mining  claims,  and  how 
difficult  it  is  for  any  one  not  an  expert  to  decide  upon  their 
value  or  their  worthlessness,  we  shall  not  attempt  to  draw  any 
conclusions  from  what  we  heard  or  saw  as  to  the  ultimate  success 
of  this  part  of  the  Colorado  River  as  a  mining  region. 

EXISTING   FACTS,  MOST   UNFORTUNATE   FOR    THE    INDIANS. 

Quite  apart,  however,  from  any  conclusions  which  might  be 
drawn,  the  facts  in  themselves  necessarily  enter  into  the  question 
of  the  removal  of  the  Indians.  The  effect  of  the  bill  before 
Congress  is  to  except  and  reserve  these  claims  from  the  opera- 
tion of  the  "treaty."  It  will  not  be  feasible  for  the  United 
States  to  purchase  them,  and  the  holders  cannot,  therefore,  be 
got  rid  of.  If  the  Indians  are  removed,  they  will  therefore  have 
along  their  western  boundary  a  population  (whether  numerous  or 
not,  it  matters  but  little)  composed  of  the  mining  prospector 
and  boomer,  and  perhaps  later  on  that  most  undesirable  ele- 
ment which  invades  almost  every  mining  camp,  bringing  with  it 
exactly  what  should  be  kept  furthest  from  an  Indian  reservation. 
It  will  be  simply  impossible  to  check  the  smuggling  of  whiskey, 
as  the  opportunities  of  selling  it  to  the  Indians  will  be  ever  pres- 
ent. Quarrels  will  be  innumerable  and  violence  will  be  unpun- 
ishable. 

It  has  been  said  that  there  will  be  little  to  attract  the  Indians 
toward  the  river,  owing  to  the  extremely  arid  and  broken  country 
lying  between  it  and  the  mountains.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  to 
be  said  that  the  Indian  thinks  nothing  of  making  journeys 
requiring  an  endurance  of  which  the  white  man  is  incapable, 
and  is  frequently  found  with  his  wicky-up  in  places  that  seem 
uninhabitable. 


THE  TREATY. 

ITS  HISTORY. 

The  history  of  this  removal  business  has  been  disgraceful  from 
the  start.  The  three  Commissioners  appointed  by  the  Act  of 
May  I,  1888,  spent  nearly  four  months  with  the  Indians  before 
obtaining  the  consent  of  three-fourths  of  them  to  the  removal. 


25 

The  Commissioners  were  indefatigable.  They  brought  every 
argument  to  bear  to  make  the  Indians  admit  their  condition 
was  intolerable,  that  the  troubles  with  their  neighbors  were  fre- 
quent and  disastrous,  and  that,  in  short,  their  present  reservation 
was  in  every  way  ill-suited  to  their  wants.  It  is  but  charitable 
to  assume  in  extenuation  of  their  conduct  that,  not  only  were 
the  Commissioners  absolutely  ignorant  of  the  real  wants  of  these 
Utes,  but  unversed  in  the  true  interests  and  needs  of  Indians  in 
general.  The  Commissioners  appealed  to  the  Indians'  love  of 
hunting,  to  the  obstacles  that  existed  on  the  present  reservation 
in  the  way  of  successful  pony  raising.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
said  scarcely  one  word  to  the  Indians  about  their  farming,  and 
in  general  they  manifested  even  an  absurd  ignorance  of  the 
conditions  of  the  Indian  problem.  Perhaps  we  ought  to  add 
that  they  knew  little  of  the  proposed  reservation.  When,  after 
three  months  of  patient  arguing,  their  success  seemed  as  far 
away  as  at  the  beginning,  they  decided  to  take  some  of  the 
Indians  to  see  the  district  to  which  it  was  proposed  to  move 
them.  They  then  went  through  only  its  northeastern  part,  and 
so  perhaps  are  still  entirely  ignorant  of  the  expanse  of  abso- 
lutely dry  and  useless  country  which  forms  the  greater  part  of 
the  proposed  reservation. 


ITS    PROVISIONS MONEY   AND    SHEEP    TO    BE    GIVEN    TO    THE 

INDIANS. 

The  agreement  with  the  Indians,  which  it  is  proposed  that 
Congress  shall  ratify,  gives  the  Indians,  over  and  above  the  new 
territory  assigned  to  them,  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  to 
be  paid  in  equal  installments  for  ten  years  to  the  Indians  per 
capita,  irrespective  of  age  and  sex,  and  twenty  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  sheep.  It  "is  simply  ridiculous  to  contend  that  this 
makes  the  exchange  a  fair  one  and  that  the  Indians  will  not  be 
defrauded  if  the  report  of  the  Commission  is  ratified  on  these 
conditions.  Not  only,  however,  will  the  Indians  be  grossly 
cheated,  but  their  advance  toward  civilization  will  be  hopelessly 
retarded.  The  provisions  of  the  *'  treaty  "  are  most  ill-advised 
— in  fact,  they  are  entirely  out  of  harmony  with  the  avowed 
policy  of  the  Government.     Not  a  single  provision  can  be  said 


26 

to  look  toward  their  development  in  civilization.  They  are  to 
be  pauperized.  A  large  sum  of  money  and  several  thousand 
dollars'  worth  of  sheep  are  to  be  divided  among  them,  and  more- 
over, as  will  be  seen  by  Article  V  of  the  agreement,  their  chiefs 
are  to  be  singled  out  for  special  favor.  This  was,  of  course,  to 
obtain  their  assent  to  the  treaty  and  enlist  their  influence  in  its 
favor.  The  Government  thus  goes  out  of  its  way  to  emphasize 
the  tribal  dominion  of  the  chiefs,  when  it  is  admitted  on  all 
sides  that  their  authority  should  in  all  possible  cases  be  ignored. 
We  are  under  this  "treaty"  to  continue  to  view  the  Utes  as 
the  subjects  of  a  foreign  nation  rather  than  our  wards.  In 
regard  to  the  particular  head-men  who  have  thus  been  bribed,  it 
should  be  known  that  only  one  of  them  is  entitled  to  the  white 
man's  respect  and  to  the  position  of  influence  which  he  holds 
among  his  fellow  Indians.  It  was  a  matter  of  common  talk  at 
the  agency  that  one  of  these  chiefs  had  within  six  months  been 
concerned  in  an  atrocious  murder  and  had  not  been  brought  to 
justice. 

HUNTING   PRIVILEGES   GRANTED. 

As  we  have  already  said,  the  agreement  gives  the  Indians 
the  right  to  hunt  over  the  La  Salle  Mountains,  to  the  north 
of  the  proposed  reservation,  a  privilege  which  will  be  worth 
very  little  after  a  few  years  of  its  enjoyment,  considering  the 
way  in  which  the  game  has  already  been  killed  in  that  part  of 
Utah.  Moreover,  the  Indians,  if  removed,  will  still  retain  their 
present  hunting  rights,  which  are  by  no  means  inconsiderable. 
As  we  have  already  suggested,  trouble  with  the  Indians  in  almost 
every  case  arises  when  the  Indians  are  hunting  off"  their  reserva- 
tions. Every  extension  of  the  privilege  to  hunt  is  therefore 
deeply  to  be  regretted.  The  Executive  should  in  every  way 
seek  to  dissuade  the  Indians  from  availing  themselves  of  their 
hunting  rights,  and  Congress  should  embrace  every  opportunity 
to  abridge  and  curtail,  rather  than  enlarge,  the  privileges  that 
have  already  been  granted. 

In  regard  to  the  La  Salle  Mountains  in  particular,  the  provision 
contained  in  the  agreement  is  exceedingly  unfortunate.  This 
provision  appeared  to.  be  a  necessity  after  the  Commissioners  had 
discovered  that  the  La  Salle  system  could  not  be  included  within 


27 

the  limits  of  the  proposed  reservation,  but  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  the  slopes  of  these  mountains  are  already  roamed  over 
by  cattle  and  cowboys  in  charge  of  them.  The  Pittsburgh  and 
Stevens  Cattle  Companies,  together  with  the  ranchmen  of  Moab, 
owning  in  all  some  20,000  head,  use  the  La  Salle  Mountains  as 
their  summer  range. 


APPROPRIATION    FOR  INDEMNIFICATION  OF  SETTLERS  NOT  HAVING 
STATUTORY    RIGHTS    GROSSLY    INADEQUATE. 

The  bill  before  Congress  appropriates  ^50,000  for  the  removal 
and  indemnification  of  settlers  at  present  established  on  the  site 
of  the  proposed  reservation.  There  are  two  classes  of  settlers: 
First,  those  who  have  made  entries  under  the  "  Desert  Land  " 
Act  of  March  3,  1887,  and  who  therefore  cannot  be  compelled 
to  sell  their  titles  and  improvements ;  the  purchase  of  these  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  being  necessarily  conditional  upon 
his  making  such  terms  with  the  holders  as  shall  be  satisfactory  to 
both.  Secondly,  those  who,  not  having  entered  under  any  act 
of  Congress,  have  no  legal  rights.  They  are  far  the  larger  num- 
ber, and  the  value  to  them  of  their  homesteads  and  improve- 
ments, the  injury  that  they  will  suffer  in  being  disturbed  and 
driven  from  their  homes,  will  in  no  sense  be  covered  by  the 
balance  of  the  ^50,000  that  remains  after  the  purchase  of  the 
legal  titles.  Unless  at  least  $150,000  be  appropriated  for  the 
compensation  of  those  who  are  removed  and  the  purchase  of 
these  legal  titles,  a  great  wrong  will  be  done  the  former,  who, 
while  they  cannot  prove  statutory  entries,  are  yet  equally  entitled 
on  equitable  grounds  to  the  consideration  of  the  Government. 


OTHER    ITEMS    OF    EXPENSE    TO    BE    CONSIDERED. 

The  actual  payments  in  money  and  sheep  to  the  Indians  under 
the  agreement  amount  to  $72,000.  To  meet  the  cost  of  such 
new  agency  buildings  as  will  have  to  be  constructed,  the  bill 
before  Congress  provides  for  an  appropriation  of  $15,000,  and 
for  removing  the  Indians  from  their  present  reservation  and 
making  such  surveys  as  may  be  found  necessary  on  the  new 
reserve,  the  sum  of  $10,000  is  appropriated. 


28 

In  computing  the  cost  of  the  removal,  one  must  also  take  into 
account  the  expense  involved  in  the  erection  of  the  new  army- 
post  rendered  necessary  by  the  character  of  the  proposed  reser- 
vation and  the  distance  that  the  new  agency  will  be  from  any 
settlements.  This  will  be  at  least  twenty  or  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars.  To  this  should  be  added  the  ;^  10,000  already  set  aside 
by  the  act  creating  the  Commission  in  consideration  Of  its  ser- 
vices. A  most  moderate  estimate  of  the  immediate  cost  of  the 
removal  would  thus  place  the  total  at  at  least  $275,000,  if  the 
Government  is  to  respect  the  claims  of  those  who  are  to  be 
removed  from  the  proposed  reservation. 


COST   OF   TRANSPORTATION    TO    BE    CONSIDERED. 

In  considering  the  ultimate  increase  in  expense,  one  must  take 
into  account  the  cost  of  transportation  to  points  on  the  proposed 
reservation.  It  is  true  that  during  the  last  year  the  railroad  has 
been  extended  and  will  shortly  reach  what  is  known  as  the  *'  Great 
Bend"  of  the  Dolores  River,  but  this  will  still  leave  more  than 
sixty  miles  of  bad  wagon  road  between  the  new  agency  and  the 
locomotive.  The  present  agency  is  within  five  miles  of  the 
railway. 


A   POOR    CHANGE    OF    INVESTMENT    FOR    THE    INDIANS. 

To  meet  the  figures  contained  in  the  bill,  it  is  therein  provided 
that  the  lands  comprised  within  the  present  reservation  shall 
be  parted  with  to  settlers  under  ''the  pre-emption,  homestead, 
and  town-site  laws,  and  the  laws  governing  the  disposal  of  coal 
and  mineral  lands,"  but  at  not  less  than  $1.25  per  acre,  and  that 
the  proceeds  of  these  sales  shall  be  set  apart  for  the  expense  in- 
volved in  the  removal.  The  balance  of  the  money  so  obtained 
is  to  be  held  in  trust  by  the  Goverhment  for  the  use  of  the  In- 
dians. Without  attempting  to  predict  the  actual  results  of  this 
arrangement  from  a  financial  point  of  view,  it  is  to  be  noted  that 
it  cannot  be  commended  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Indian. 
The  Government,  by  the  removal,  robs  its  wards  of  the  best  pos- 
session they  can  have,  to  wit,  good  agricultural  land,  and  substi- 
tutes for  it  what  is  in  no  sense  its  equivalent — a  large  strip  of 


29 

almost  desert  land,  and  a  money  balance  which,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, will  probably  have  to  be  spent  in  the  further  pau- 
perization of  the  beneficiaries,  the  proposed  reservation  not 
being  a  place  where  they  can  successfully  be  trained  toward  civ- 
ilization. 


CONCLUSION. 

It  has  been  held  by  some  that  tending  cattle  must  come 
before  agriculture.  This  is  not  so.  Whatever  may  have  been 
true  of  the  pre-historic  development  of  our  race,  it  is  ridiculous 
to  contend  that  the  same  must  be  true  of  the  development  of 
detached  tribes  of  Indians  living  in  the  nineteenth  century 
and  surrounded  by  civilization.  The  Southern  Utes  are  not  a 
part  of  a  great  race  existing  alone  unaided  on  the  steppes  of 
Asia  to  work  out  by  themselves  a  gradual  civilization.  They 
are  the  wards  of  an  intelligent  nation.  Expediency  as  well  as 
honor  demands  that  the  Government  should  train  them  as 
rapidly  as  possible  to  meet  the  responsibilities  of  civilized  life. 
Experience  on  a  great  many  reservations  has  already  proved  that 
there  is  nothing  inherent  in  the  Indian's  nature  to  prevent  his 
becoming  a  farmer,  however  inconsistent  that  life  may  be  with 
some  preconceived  notions  of  the  red  man. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  at  all  that  little  would  be  gained  in  the 
case  of  the  Utes  if  they  could  be  induced  to  take  up  cattle  raising 
as  a  business.  Apart  from  the  fact  that  the  cattle  business, 
without  a  large  expenditure  of  capital  and  an  organization  of 
labor  of  which  the  Utes  would  not  be  capable,  cannot  be 
carried  on  with  any  profit,  it  may  be  safely  concluded  that  if 
they  could  be  made  to  take  to  cattle  raising  as  a  business,  the 
Government  would  then  find  it  no  less  difficult  to  induce  them 
to  lead  industrious  and  civilized  lives  and  to  send  their  children 
to  school  than  it  does  at  present,  while  they  are  following  bands 
of  ponies  or  hunting  and  going  after  berries  in  the  mountains. 
The  Navajos  at  present  have  large  numbers  of  cattle  as  well  as 
horses  and  ponies,  and  yet  the  same  difficulties  are  at  present 
encountered  in  inducing  them  to  send  their  children  to  school 
and  adopt  the  ways  of  civilization. 

As  we  have  already  said,  troubles   with  such  Indians  as  the 


30. 

Southern  Utes  do  not  take  place  upon  their  reservations,  but 
rather  away  from  them,  and  miles  distant  from  the  agencies. 
This  must  be  plain  to  any  one  who  reads  the  newspaper  reports, 
sensational  as  they  often  are,  of  disputes  arising  between  cowboys 
and  Indians  who  are  off  their  reservations.  It  is  true  that  under 
the  most  favorable  circumstances  it  will  be  some  years  before 
the  Southern  Utes  can  be  induced  to  lead  industrious  lives  and 
take  up  land  in  severalty.  But  if  this  is  the  object  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, if  this  is  the  best  thing  that  can  be  wished  for  for  the 
Utes,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  not  only  is  their  present  reser- 
vation in  every  way  suited  for  their  occupancy,  but  that  a  worse 
place  could  hardly  be  found  for  them  than  the  district  to  which 
it  is  proposed  to  move  them.  It  is  not  merely  that  their  taking 
up  land  in  severalty  will  be  thereby  indefinitely  postponed,  but 
that  the  agricultural  possibilities  of  the  district  which  it  is  pro- 
posed to  set  apart  for  them  are  so  meagre  that  an  allotment  of 
the  land  to  individuals  will  be  practically  impossible.  And  yet, 
in  order  to  gratify  the  demand  of  the  people  in  southern  Colo- 
rado, the  Government  is  asked  to  ignore  this  fact  and  to  take  a 
step  which  will  render  it  necessary  to  support  these  Indians  as 
paupers  for  all  succeeding  generations. 

Note  that  it  would  be  practically  impossible  to  maintain 
the  discipline  which  these  Indians  at  present  sorely  need  in  the 
country  to  which  it  is  proposed  to  take  them.  At  present  they 
are  brought  into  contact  with  civilization,  and  if  the  sanctions 
of  law  which  exist  among  the  whites  are  unknown  to  the  Indians, 
it  is  not  due  to  their  distance  from  civil  authority  and  the  ad- 
nlinistration  of  justice.  In  Utah,  however,  the  evil  element 
among  them  would  be  master  of  the  situation.  Not  only  will 
the  danger  of  outbreaks  be  greatly  increased,  but  if  they  occur 
they  will  prove  to  be  much  more  serious  and  extended.  At  all 
times  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  patrolling  their  reservation 
will  be  very  great.  Apart  from  the  difficulty  that  their  agent 
will  experience  in  holding  them  near  the  little  spots  of  agricul- 
tural land  susceptible  of  cultivation,  his  task  in  inducing  them 
to  send  their  children  to  school  will  be  an  almost  hopeless  one. 

It  is  claimed  that  the  Indians  are  unanimous  in  their  desire  to 
go  to  the  Blue  Mountains,  and  that  if  their  wish  is  not  granted 
by  the  Government  it  will  not  only  be  very  difficult  for  their 


31 

agent  to  influence  them  in  the  future,  but  that  there  will  actually 
be  a  serious  outbreak  and  uprising.  This  assertion  is  not  sup- 
ported by  facts.  The  Capotes  and  Muaches,  who  together 
form  about  one-half  of  the  Southern  Utes,  a:nd  among  whom 
are  nearly  all  the  thirty-two  men  who  have  taken  up  farms,  are 
not  anxious  for  the  removal,  or,  at  any  rate,  are  half-hearted 
with  regard  to  it.  The  Weeminuches,  indeed,  seem  desirous 
of  going  to  the  Blue  Mountains.  They  at  present  pass  much 
of  their  time  in  Utah,  and  as  long  as  any  game  lasts,  and 
until  they  can  be  induced  to  settle  down  on  farms,  they  will,  as 
heretofore,  be  continually  roaming  over  unoccupied  lands.  These 
are  disagreeable  features  of  the  problem  that  must  be  faced. 
That  there  will  be  any  serious  trouble  among  them  is  almost 
inconceivable.  They  did  not  want  to  go  at  first,  and  their 
desire  for  removal  at  present  is  not  so  great  that  the  Govern- 
ment will  do  them  any  injury  by  ignoring  it.  As  a  good 
guardian,  the  Government  is  bound  to  disregard  their  wish, 
founded,  as  it  is,  upon  allurements  which  should  have  never 
been  held  out. 

As  the  game  becomes  scarcer  there  will  be  less  and  less  hunt- 
ing, and  if  the  Government  will  only  throw  round  these  Indians 
inducements  to  farm  and  send  their  children  to  school,  we 
believe  that  the  next  generation  in  Colorado  will  see  the  Ute 
Reservation  blotted  from  the  map.  In  the  agreement  made  with 
all  the  Utes  in  1880,  an  allotment  of  land  in  severalty  was  pro- 
vided for,  and  under  this  agreement  or  under  the  Dawes  law  it 
will  be  possible,  if  the  Government  acts  wisely  toward  them, 
to  bring  about  before  long'  a  division  of  part  of  their  present 
reservation  among  the  members  of  the  tribes  and  an  opening  of 
the  remainder  to  the  whites  around  them.  Notwithstanding 
their  unfitness  at  present  for  such  a  change,  we  believe  that  it 
would  be  far  better  to  make  it  immediately  than  to  remove 
them  to  the  proposed  reservation,  where  such  an  allotment  could 
never  be  accomplished  without  inflicting  great  wrong  and  suf- 
fering. 

Finally,  it  should  be  remembered  that  if  these  Indians  are 
removed,  it  will  be  by  the  Government's  reverting  to  the  old 
and  vicious  habit  of  shoving  Indians  further  and  further  west, — 
a  habit  abandoned,  it  was  hoped, — a  habit  which  in  the  past  has 


32 

only  increased  the  expenses  of  the  Government  and  wrought 
injustice  and  disaster  to  the  Indian.  The  question  raised  by 
this  removal  is  therefore  one  of  vital  importance,  and  should 
interest  keenly  not  only  Colorado,  but  the  whole  United  States. 

Francis  Fisher  Kane, 
Frank  M.  Riter. 


The  Indian  Rights  Association  is  a  non-partisan,  non- 
sectarian  organization  for  promoting  the  civilization  of  the 
Indian   and  for  securing  his  natural  and  political  rights. 
To  this  end  it  aims  to  collect  and  collate  facts,  principally 
through  the  personal   investigations   of  its  officers  and 
agents,  regarding  the  Indian's  relations  with  the  Govern- 
ment and  with  our  own  race,  concerning  his  progress  in 
industry  and  education,  his  present  and    future  needs. 
Upon  the  basis  of  facts,  and  of  legitimate  conclusions 
drawn  from  them,  the  Association  appeals  to  the  American 
people  for  the  maintenance  of  such  a  just  and  wise  policy 
upon  the  part  of  the  Executive  and  Congress  in  dealing 
with  these  helpless  wards  of  the  Nation  as  may  discourage 
fraud  and  violence,  promote  education,  obedience  to  law, 
and  honorable  labor,  and  finally  result  in  the  complete 
absorption  of  the  Indian  into  the  common  life  of  the 
Nation. 


